What's going on @ Sears?

[Ernesto]

Sure I know about the K Mart merger deal, but yesterday I visited "my" Sears & things seem to be changing fast. There were "half off" signs everywhere. I bought a home blood pressure moniter for peanuts. Stuff looked so cheap that I almost purchased crap I don't really need.

[Orsino]

1. Pending merger...

...probably has both companies wanting to look as good as possible on paper. They will dump all the merchandise they can.

[barb162]

2. Sears has been on a downward slide since the 60s or 70s as

discounters have taken over. I think KMart will be the lead and Sears will disappear. How the mighty have fallen. Sears never should have sold Allstate, Coldwell Banker and a few other things. Amazing number of mistakes over the years.

[Ernesto]

3. Another case of 'Merica's "great race to the bottom" n-t

[barb162]

7. yeah, Sears was the middle class store and Kmart is the poor person's

store along with Wallie's. Another example of the race to bottom.

[Astrochimp]

4. IMHO the death of the catalog was their ruin. N/T

[Phentex]

5. I think people knew Sears for appliances...

and tools. Why did they try to spread themsleves too thin and try to compete with the bigger department stores for apparel, etc. ? Makes no sense.

[barb162]

8. for their whole history they sold apparel and it sold well. I remember

their catalogs as a kid and a huge amount of it was clothing

[Left Is Write]

9. Sears (when it was Sears Roebuck) used to be known for their catalog.

They've always sold clothes, right from the start, along with household items and gadgets.

Wasn't Sears Roebuck the first mail-order catalog?

[barb162]

18. I think so or else it was Montgomery Ward ( another ex-giant)

[jmowreader]

20. Montgomery Ward was the first catalog

Sears and Wards both started as catalog-only retailers, but Wards started first.

Now Wards is back to catalog/Internet-only sales (same thing, really) and Sears belongs to someone else.

[IStriker]

13. I sure hope you're wrong...

My daughter has been a sales person (appliances) at Sears working on commission and making about $ 65,000/yr for the past 10 yrs. She has 2 kids (one is handicapped) to support. I've tried for ages to get her to go into real estate, but to no avail.

[commander bunnypants]

6. we are going to buy a new stove this weekend

practically free with the card and discounts

CB

[Left Is Write]

10. Does this mean I should be checking out Sears this weekend?

I have a Sears Mastercard, but I never use it. It's been sitting empty for quite a while. They keep sending me coupons for $ off if I use the card at Sears.

[commander bunnypants]

12. yes

CB

[Ernesto]

15. "Buy" all means (sorry)

I keep wracking my brain about how to take advantage of their current pricing.

[Maddy McCall]

17. Let me give you some advice...

I picked out a less expensive one that they didn't have in stock. Since they guarantee to have it in stock or to give you the closest model for the lesser expensive model's price, you can get a nice stove for nearly nothing.

The stove I was going to buy was 269.00 but they didn't have it in stock...the closest model they had in stock was 699.00 and they had to sell it to me for 269.00.

I LOVE my stove! :-)

[Ernesto]

19. Good shot Maddy!

I know that I'm going to somehow rationalize another visit to make "the big score".

[Blue Diadem]

11. They were the #1 retailer

until I think 1987, maybe 88. I worked for them for quite a while. I left in 1986 and was lucky to sell what little stock I had in 87, before the big dip.

Sad to see what's happened to them.

[warrens]

14. Like most retailers

They're stuck with a lot of Xmas inventory. With the merger coming in March, they probably are deciding what products to get out of and getting inventories down to the least possible to make changeovers, whatever they are going to be, easier.

[yellowdogintexas]

16. me too, I went hoping to find one pair of shoes that did not make my feet

hurt, and found four all half price and I bought them all.

Lots of stuff on sale, for sure

[sbj405]

21. I was surprised that even the Land's End merch. was marked down

The store was pretty empty and lots of markdowns. I suppose that's not terribly unusual this time of year.